NEW ROLE RE­VEALS HER SHOCK­ING AD­DIC­TION On­line gam­bling left me £70k in debt and nearly cost me my life

If you do win, it feels good, so you go back on. It’s the buzz and the thrill and the bright lights, the mu­sic and the fast spin of the slots.”

De­spite hear­ing of oth­ers who had got into debt play­ing on­line casi­nos and bingo, Kelly thought her new hobby was just harm­less fun.

But she was soon ad­dicted and hid­ing her habit from her part­ner, son and ev­ery­one around her. She said: “There are cha­t­rooms on the sites. A mes­sage popped up from one player which read, ‘I can’t be­lieve I’m £13,000 in debt.’ I was read­ing it, think­ing, ‘How on earth do you get 13 grand in debt do­ing this?’

“But it quickly takes hold. Not even six months af­ter my first spin I was £10,000 in debt and had maxed out my first credit card. Look­ing back, I can’t be­lieve my bank let me keep go­ing.

“I was play­ing for eight hours a day, ev­ery day – hid­ing it from ev­ery­one – and could eas­ily lose £100 in just five sec­onds. It only takes a sec­ond to click, spin and lose it.

“It doesn’t feel like real money. It felt like play­ing Sonic the Hedge­hog when I was a kid, with the lives and top score at the top of the screen.

“I would be los­ing more than £500 ev­ery day, eas­ily – some­times more.

“I’d get up in a morn­ing and, as soon as my part­ner went to work and my son went to school I’d sit all day on my lap­top just spin­ning on the fruit ma­chines.

“I’d max out one card, then I’d ap­ply pp y for an­other one. Then an­other. I got so des­per­ate I used to get into my car and think, ‘I’ll wrap my­self around a tree and end it. Then it’s only me and the tree who would get hurt.’”

Kelly even­tu­ally told her part­ner and found the help she needed.

Since 2014, she has been pay­ing back her debt at £300 a month and has helped other ad­dicts re­cover.

She said: “For some­one like Sheri­dan Smith to por­tray what I’ve been through and for it to be seen on tele­vi­sion is a huge deal. It will reach mil­lions. She is such an icon.”